


ANNUAL ORATION 



DELIVERED AT TIIK 



COMMENCEMENT 




refitomailm §$0ciett). 



COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON, 



February 27, 1874, 



Rev. JAMES W. MILES. 



PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 



CHARLESTON : 

WALKER, EVANS & COGSWELL, PRINTERS 
JS'os. 3 Broad and 109 East Bay Streets. 

1874. 



ajnnjja.il, OEATION 



DELIVERED AT THE 



COMMENCEMENT 




regfomaihii; J|0cief§ : 

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON, 



February #7, 1874, 



Rev. JAMES W. MILES. 



PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 



CHARLESTON : 
WALKER, EYANS & COGSWELL, PRINTERS 
JNos. 3 Broad and 109 East Bay Streets. 
1874. 



«3» 



iift 






litl 



THE DESTINY OF HUMANITY. 
«4 

When there is so much that is sad in the reminis- 
cences of the past, and so much that is gloomy and 
£ uncertain in the anticipations of the immediate future, 

it may not be unwelcome, upon the present occasion, 
to bury the past, and, instead of harassing contempla- 
tion of what lies immediately before us, to direct our 
reflections to the future Destiny of Humanity. The 
Destiny of Humanity ! What human heart does not 
throb at those solemn words ? 

I would not suggest this as an excuse for shutting 
our e}^es to the duties of the present; but there are two 
prominent points of view from which the subject may 
be regarded, which, according as the one or the other 
is adopted, may, by a refiex'action, arrest and paralyze, 
or incite and nerve, our action in the present. For so 
intimate is the connection between every age and gen- 
eration, that as we are the product of all the antecedent 
evolutions of humanity, so our action must exert our 
influence upon the future; for whether consciously and 
willingly or not, every generation is a link, acted upon 
and acting, in the development of the great plan of God 
respecting our race. And although that plan will 
doubtless be accomplished in the course of ages, yet 
within the mysterious circle of our free agency, we 
may contribute to its retardation, or to its more speedy 
advancement. 

I have said that there are two prominent points of 
view from which the future Destiny of Humanity may 
be regarded. The one is, that man has already nearly 
fulfilled the ends of his existence — has shown what his 
imperfect and ever-sinning nature can accomplish — and 
that it only remains for God to interpose directly, and 
to close the tragic drama of man's wilfulness and folly. 



In support of this view, it may be urged that man has 
had an abundant probation ; that he has ever shown 
the same eharacteristies, in every age, of a corrupt 
nature ; that for nations, history is, written in vain, and 
that the}- ever repeat the same weaknesses and aberra- 
tions ; that Christianity has given sufficient lessons to 
an unheedful world, and that having garnered in the 
harvest of faithful individuals, it only remains to stop 
the ever-recurring cycle of national errors and failures, 
by the immediate interposition of God, introducing a 
miraculous millenium, and consummating the destiny 
of humanity. As to the speedy introduction of a 
miraculous millenium, I will only say that it seems to 
me a notion based upon a most uncritical interpretation 
of Scripture, and seems, furthermore, to violate a sound 
and essential canon, namely, not to introduce superflu- 
ous miraculous interpositions; for if the existing laws 
of Providence are competent to accomplish what is in- 
volved in the Idea of Humanity, we cannot suppose the 
Deity feebly resorting to expedients, in order to secure 
the operation and effect of what His own laws, by the 
steady, natural evolution of their intrinsic power, should 
accomplish. Were it generally believed, however, that 
a miraculous millenium is on the point of being intro- 
duced, such a belief, from the very nature of man, 
would tend to paralyze his exertions in reference to the 
future earthly destiny of his race, and would leave the 
Idea of Humanity unaccomplished as to what it plainly 
involves. If it be assumed that the Idea of Humanity 
was not to be accomplished further, and was to be cut 
short in its development by such a miraculous interven- 
tion, I can only reply that, even granting that such an 
intervention may at some time occur, it is yet unrea- 
sonable to conceive that it will occur otherwise than in 
accordance with what the Idea of Humanity involves, 
and, therefore, not speedily, because that Idea is not 
yet fully evolved, and no reason can be alleged why the 
Ideas of God should not attain their full evolution and 
realization. This thought I will endeavor to bring out 
more fully as I proceed ; and it leads me, naturally, to 
state the other point of view from which the future 



Destiny of Humanity may be regarded. This is, that 
man has not accomplished all of which he is capable ; 
that we can conceive yet higher development of his 
capacities; that notwithstanding all the apparent stag- 
nations and retrogressions of humanity, there has been, 
though a slow, yet a steady progress ; and, therefore, 
that there is reason to expect and hope for a future, 
however distant, and however gradual the approach 
towards it, of higher attainment in Morals, Polities, 
Eeligion — in short, of progress in all that is involved 
in human capacities. This proposition I shall en- 
deavor—with what inadequate ability no one can be so 
conscious as myself — to elucidate and establish. The 
apology for my temerity in venturing upon the subject 
must be found in its intrinsic interest and suitability to 
the present time. 

Among the reasons which might be presented in sup- 
port of the proposition, there is one which strikes my 
own mind with peculiar force. It is this : The Ideas 
or Thoughts of God must be efficient; they cannot be 
imperfect, and must, therefore, be realized. With the 
Divine Mind to think mu3t be identical with the reali- 
zation of thought. If it be urged, however, that we 
can conceive the Divine Mind as embracing all possible 
thoughts and ideas, but selecting only certain ones for 
realization, in accordance with a chosen plan, this 
would not affect the position that the Ideas so selected 
must still be fully realized and that wo have no ground 
for supposing that the Deity would select an Idea for 
expression in actual existence, w T hich He would arrest 
or render abortive. Even if every thought of the 
Divine Mind is not actually realized in the Universe; 
is it not reasonable to believe that, having the power of 
selection, He would choose such as He intended to be 
fully accomplished? Now, the Thoughts or Ideas of 
the Divine Mind are expressed to us in the phenomena 
of the Universe; and when we see there an Idea intro- 
duced into actual existence, what ground have we for 
supposing that it is not to be fully realized? Is it not 
rather more reasonable to believe that, as a Divine Idea 
put into actual expression, it must necessarily evolve 



6 

itself completely ? It is no objection to this that we 
see imperfect individuals in large classes of phenomena, 
where the Idea under which they are embraced seems 
frustrated or not accomplished ; for these apparent ex- 
ceptions are themselves the results of laws becoming 
realized, and are included in the comprehensive plan 
which is in process of evolution through the phenome- 
na of the Universe. If, then, it is not reasonable to 
conceive the Ideas of the Divine Mind as imperfect — if 
it is most reasonable to conceive that when those Ideas 
are put into actual expression they will have their full 
realization — then it is also reasonable to expect a still 
higher destiny for Humanity, because all has not yet 
been realized, which even our finite minds can perceive 
to be involved in the Idea. The Idea of Humanity is a 
very complex one, and may embrace far more, in the 
Divine Mind, than we can even imagine; we cannot 
anticipate in speculation all which God designs Human- 
ity to accomplish ; but we can perceive very clearly 
that there are capacities in Man which have not yet 
reached that point of development conceivable by us; 
and it is hard to believe that God has actualized the 
Idea of Humanity in history, without the design of 
fully developing it. That the development of a part of 
the Idea is only to be expected and accomplished in a 
future life may be admitted ; but Man has not fulfilled 
all of which he is capable upon earth, and without the 
accomplishment of which, the Idea of Humanity would 
be mutilated and abortive. The perfect development of 
the Idea of Humanity must not be confounded with the 
development of a perfect Humanity. There can be but 
One Perfect Being in the Universe; and while en- 
deavoring to set forth the ground of my hopes for Man 
in the future, I am no visionary optimist looking for 
perfection in a finite creature. But when I speak of 
the perfect or complete development of the Idea of Hu- 
manity, I mean, of course, the accomplishment of all 
which, from the nature and conditions of the case, is 
involved in the conception of Man. I am not dream- 
ing, therefore, that Man can be perfect, but am urging 
that God will completely fulfil what the conception of 
such a creature as man admits and involves. 



The next step, therefore, will be to consider what is 
involved in the Idea of Man or Humanity. This I 
would not have the presumption to pretend to treat ex- 
haustively, but there are some salient points which are 
plain to every comprehension. I presume it will not 
be denied that the Idea of Man is that of a creature 
capable of Social, Political and Religious development. 
To what extent is not now the question ; but if I may 
fairly assume that such are his capabilities, I may sure- 
ly proceed to inquire how far he has developed them. 
To do this would, it is true, require volumes comprising 
and reviewing all past history ; but as my hearers are, 
doubtless, to a certain extent, familiar with the chief 
facts, I trust there will be no presumption in under- 
taking to condense those facts into the following very 
brief deductions. 

In estimating what Humanity has accomplished, it 
must be borne in mind that Humanity has developed 
itself through various Races, possessing respectively, 
different capacities and missions. It is quite unimpor- 
tant to our purpose to inquire how those differences 
arose ; we must take them as facts given in the History 
of Man. 

And here I will take leave, in passing, to enter my 
protest against a certain narrow view of history which 
is even at this day still held by some, who have a vague 
notion that the history of the world is in some way 
subject to the general direction of Providence, but who, 
nevertheless, seem to regard the progress of the Chris- 
tian Religion, and the matter of individual salvation, as 
almost exclusively the object of God's designs and pro- 
vidential relations with respect to Man ; while every- 
thing lying beyond this sphere comes, almost uncon- 
sciously, to be regarded as profane, and thus whole cen- 
turies of history, and vast careers of mighty nations, 
are excluded from serious consideration as an insignifi- 
cant phantasmagoria of worthless Paganism. There is 
something painfully profane in this slighting of God's 
Providence in the histoiy of the world. Indeed, there 
is something essentially heathenish in the notion which 
seems to confine His regards and designs to the limited 



8 

portions of history contained in the sacred scriptures 
and the Christian Church, making Him a kind of na- 
tional or local Deity, and taking no account of His 
relations to the empires and millions of human beings, 
whoso course He guided, and to whose national exist- 
ence He assigned its appointed part in the history of 
the world. It is almost a half-infidel, certainly a thor- 
oughly base conception of Christianity, which seems to 
think, that the honor and elevation of this religion 
require the whole world, outside of the old Jewish and 
the Christian, to be traduced, blackened, condemned, 
and despised, as if it were the work of the devil, and 
not a part of the blessed God's own creation, ordered 
and designed by the laws of His own Providence. This 
gross dualism, as if Paganism and evil were forces 
against which God had to contend by opposing expe- 
dients, is foreign to the whole spirit of Christianity. 
If there be one God, all the laws of the Universe must 
be the result of His Thought and Plan. In that plan 
is involved, it is true, a moral being — man — who, as 
such, is responsible, and, therefore, possessed of free 
agency, and of the capacity, Consequently, of choosing 
good or evil j but Man, in the Plan of God, as actual- 
ized in the Universe, has various phases of a Divine 
Idea to manifest ; and, therefore, while personally re- 
sponsible according to the conditions in which he is 
placed, he is everywhere equally the thought and care 
of God, however diverse may be the stages of Human- 
ity which he is appointed to exhibit in the develop- 
ment of that Divine Thought or Idea. 

We find, then, that while all men are social, moral, 
political and religious creatures, there are yet two 
grand divisions of the Human Family, exhibiting these 
traits in marked difference of degree and character. 
One division — the lower — comprehends all the unhis- 
torical races — that is, the races who have developed no 
literature, and, therefore, have left no recorded history; 
and although among these races there have been vari- 
ous grades of development — from the embmted native 
of Australia to the organized empire of the Peruvian 
Incas — yet they all stand upon a lower level than the 



9 

other division, which comprehends the historical races, 
who have evolved the traits mentioned in a higher de- 
gree, and have left their recorded impress upon the his- 
tory of the world. The lower division, then, we may- 
eliminate from the problem immediately before us. 
They have shown that there is a certain unity of na- 
ture in man, and here we may dismiss them. For, 
although it has been seriously disputed, yet I have 
never seen it disproved, that we may regard as a sound 
canon of historical criticism the maxim that no people 
originally savage have ever developed from within a 
civilization, and, conversely, that no people who have 
spontaneously developed a civilization, have ever been 
found in a primitive savage condition, rude as may 
have been their earlier social state. But in the higher 
division of the Human Family — the historical races — 
there is also a marked difference in the various grades 
of their development. Some, like the Chinese, have 
reached a certain point and become stationary. Some, 
like the ancient Hindoo, have gone yet further, and left 
their marvellous Sanskrit language, as a key to the 
phenomena ot the vast families of languages which 
spread from India to Iceland. Some, like Greece and 
.Rome, have moulded the intellectual and juristic cul- 
ture of the whole Western civilized world. Some, like 
the Gothic and Germanic nations, have introduced new 
elements of development and life into the old, decaying 
civilization. Some, like the Semites, have been the 
cradle and depositories of certain peculiar and especial 
religious manifestations. And so on — each race has ful- 
filled its own mission, all contributing to the unfolding 
of the complex and multiform Idea of Humanity. 
Sprung from, and rooted in, all the past as the present 
is, it is no visionary speculation that many an oriental 
notion, even principles derived originally from Buddh- 
ism, should be influencing present modes of thought 
and traditional belief, although the traces of the chan- 
nels by which those oriental elements flowed down to 
us have become lost, and we are unconscious of the real 
sources of notions which have become intimate!}' com- 
mingled with popular beliefs. Who can trace the sub- 



10 

tie influences upon theological and philosophical specu- 
lation of the commingling of oriental and occidental 
elements in Alexandria? Taking, then, the totality 
of the different manifestations of the historical races, 
as the exponent of the highest capacities of humanity, 
what great moments of progress can we trace? 

Before proceeding to state these, it is necessary for 
their clearer appreciation, to state, first, the great Law 
of Periodicity by which the evolutions of humanity are 
regulated. Humanity neither flows on in a direct, con- 
tinuous course, like the unbroken stream of a perfectly 
straight river, nor does it revolve upon itself, like a 
stationary wheel, ever repeating the same cycles. 
Nothing is repeated in nature, JSIo age is identical with 
another. But the evolution of humanity in history 
proceeds, if I may use the expression, by a cyeloidal 
movement; or, in other words, by recurring analogous 
periods of ascent and descent. Each ascent has its 
corresponding apparent retrogression, again rising and 
descending in parallel and analogous, but not identical 
revolutions, while the general movement is still on- 
ward, is a real progress. When Confucius promulgated 
his moral system, pantheistic as it was, and based upon 
a false estimate of human nature, it was, nevertheless, 
a great advance upon the old degrading fetishism and 
idolatry. When Zoroaster reformed, and spiritualised, 
by nobler conceptions of the relation of the responsible 
soul to good and evil, the corrupt and torpid formalism 
which surrounded, him, he originated a great move- 
ment in the history of his race. When Sackya-Muni 
founded what we know as Buddhism, he elevated many 
a soul above the paralyzing degradation to which 
Brahmanism had sunk from what was once a purer 
and simpler creed. There is something affecting in the 
childlike simplicity of some of the earlier hymns of the 
Vedas; and as Brahmanism was a descending move- 
ment, so Buddhism, although now corrupt, was the 
ascending phase. When Mohammed, with an analo- 
gous and kindred spirit to that which animated the 
august Hebrew prophets, believed himself commis- 
sioned by God to proclaim the Divine Unity > he made 



11 

an immense step beyond the senseless idolatry of his 
people. An honest, earnest, useful enthusiast and re- 
former at the beginning of his career, if, under the 
pressure of circumstances which ho could not control, 
he was, at the last, led to countenance or feign impo- 
sitions which he knew to be such, it must be borne in 
mind that according to his enlightenment, (or want of 
enlightenment,) he very naturallj- regarded the means 
as justified by the good end which was aimed at, and 
in this stands upon the same footing with some of the 
great Fathers of the Church, who, although they ex- 
pressly sanctioned "pious frauds," are, nevertheless, 
adorned with the title of Saints. Do not understand 
me as apologizing for either Mohammed's conscious im- 
positions, or the pious frauds of Christian Fathers; but 
I confess that I have sometimes been disgusted with 
the flippant ignorance which, with no discrimination 
or qualification, brands sweepingly as a mere " impos- 
tor " a man of great soul, of earnest faith, and a re- 
markable instrument in the hand of Providence for 
substituting One God in place of a stupid idolatry, and 
for scourging the faithless Christian peoples, who had 
corrupted their heaven-given religion into a system of 
superstitions which sank it far below the level of the 
religion of the Arabian Reformer. 

JSfow, it is true, that Confucius' system has not been 
preserved in the spirit of its author; that Zoroaster's 
system became corrupted, as did Buddhism and Mo- 
hammedanism ; but, nevertheless, they were great 
moments of progress — ascending nodes in the cycloidal 
evolution of Humanity, and, if the retrogressions have 
not been followed by corresponding new ascents within 
those respective systems themselves, yet, taking the 
totality of Human development, we find in other races 
or portions of Humanity analogous movements and an 
undoubted advance in evolution. But sometimes these 
cycloidal movements in the different phases of Humani- 
ty do not coincide, and thus there may appear for the 
time to be no progress; as, for example, the religious 
and political movement may not be passing through 
analogous phases at the same time; Christianity was 



12 

insensibly and silently advancing, when the political 
world was sinking to the degradation of imperial mis- 
rule. So, too, a people may have made great advances 
in physical science, in inventions, and material pros- 
perity and luxury, and yet be upon a comparatively 
low step of moral culture and refinement. But to re- 
vert to the general law: if the stifling despotisms of 
the East were a downward curve in the revolution of 
History, from the patriarchal rule, the free govern- 
ments of Greece were an ascending node of Humanity, 
far in advance of Eastern despotisms. If the descent, 
again, from Roman freedom to Imperial despotism was 
parallel and analogous to the descent from patriarchal 
rule to oriental despotism, it was}^et not identical; and 
the worst period of Roman Imperialism was better than 
the monstrous slavery of an Eastern Empire. If the 
ascent from barbarism to the development of modern 
Europe, and the constitutional liberty of England, was 
parallel and analogous to the emergence of Greece from 
barbarism to monarchy, and to the republican institu- 
tions of the free Greek States, it was yet not identical; 
and the ideas we can now form of constitutional liber- 
ty are an immense advance upon anything achieved by 
Greece. What her philosophers, in speculative vision, 
saw as a real politeia, (as they called it, par excellence,) 
was never realized in any Grecian State : it had its first 
approximative realization in the growth of the British 
Constitution. The sensual degradation of woman in 
the later East, was a descent from the patriarchal con- 
ception of her position; but the ascending phase was 
manifested in woman's treatment in Greece, and in the 
dignity of the Roman matron; which, however inade- 
quate an expression of what woman can and ought to 
be, was, nevertheless, an incalculable advance beyond 
the oriental slavish conception of her social relations. 
But, still, how immensely beyond even the Roman ma- 
tron's position is that which modern civilization ac- 
cords to woman. 

The Law of Periodicity is strikingly manifested in 
the history of the human mind. As we have in ancient 
times, Philosophy, proceeding from the sanctuaries-— 



13 

then making independent attempts— forming specula- 
tive systems of physics, i. e., of the philosophy of 
nature — then proceeding to ideal and moral specula- 
tion, seeming to exhaust the cycle of dogmatic systems, 
and culminating in scepticism, which again produced a 
reaction ; so we find precisely parallel and analogous, 
but not identical, phases in modern thought, from 
scholasticism, on through the revival of letters and the 
accompanying speculations, down through the various 
systems of Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, &c. But 
it is unnecessary to pursue these analogies; only two 
brief observations need here be made. 

First, The evolutions of Humanity present aberra- 
tions and conflicts, for it is the law of progress that 
truth and advance should be made by successive con- 
tests with error and opposition. Secondly. Each suc- 
cessive apparent retrogression or downward course, 
is made from an ascending node which is in advance of 
the preceding one, and this is itself a prophecy, as it 
were, of another ascending and progressive movement 
to follow. If the deductions I have stated as drawn 
from histor}', be admitted to be well grounded, I thence 
draw the following support and confirmation of the 
proposition which I undertook to elucidate ;• namely, 
that as there has been in the successive phases of the 
evolution of Humanity, notwithstanding the conflicts 
and descending nodes, yet, a real progress ; and as that 
progress has not completely fulfilled all of which man 
has shown himself capable, yet it is a legitimate induc- 
tion that the law of Periodical Evolution will continue 
to operate in the future, analogously to its operation in 
the past; and that, therefore, we may expect a continu- 
ous progress in the unfolding of Humanity, as long as 
the existence of Man is continued upon the earth. But 
there is no valid reason for supposing that that existence 
is to be terminated before man shall have developed, as 
far as belongs to his earthly sphere, what is involved 
in his capacities. I speak, of course, of the totality of 
Humanity — the Idea of Man. That individuals should 
be cut off in mid-career, does not affect the evolution of 
the Idea of Humanity. Many an individual thread 



14 

may be broken in the weaving of the web ; the fabric, 
nevertheless, proceeds steadily to its full realization. 
Arguing, then, from the analogy of the past, what may 
we legitimately anticipate for the future? And here, 
in passing, I will endeavor to meet, by a few brief ob- 
servations, what may be a ground of discouragement 
if not of objection. Looking only at the present state 
of the world, hope may well grow dim. It has ever 
been so in analogous periods ; for we are now passing 
through one of those descending curves which have 
always, however, been transition periods of conflict 
and seeming confusion, preparatory to another ascent 
and progressive movement. Could anything have 
seemed more hopeless than the degradation of the 
world, when the new and vigorous elements were in- 
troduced, out of which sprang modern Europe? Could 
anything have seemed more desperate for intellectual 
and moral freedom, than the condition of Europe, when 
the .Reformation unfettered springs of thought and life 
that have been so mighty and fruitful? I, for one, do 
not deny that the Eeformation was the occasion of the 
manifestation of enormous evils ; but every movement 
which stirs and bears onward in its mighty swell the 
depths of Humanity, must, in the great conflict, evolve 
both evil and good ; and without the Eeformation, 
there would have been no scientific criticism, philosophy, 
or philology; no constitutional England; no republi- 
can America. Whatever may have been the faults or 
defects of the old Constitution of the original United 
States, it was republican — it was a vision of hope for 
the nations. But in the past every descending phase 
prophesied a following progress, and, therefore, I believe 
that the present state of the world is a transitional 
preparation for something higher and nobler. God 
forbid that I should ever so far lose faith in the effi- 
ciency of the Divine Ideas — of "Divine Law — in a word, 
of Providence, as to be bereft of this sustaining enno- 
Jbling, and consoling belief. Let us not fall into the 
shallow error of supposing that our present turbid 
transitional state, is a measure of the future, and that 
what we can see and dogmatise upon is quite as far as 



15 

any subsequent age cau attain. Surely the constitu- 
tional monarchies of the continent of Europe, imperfect 
as they must be confessed to be, are yet an advance 
towards national liberty, beyond the old irresponsible 
despotisms. It is incredible, and scarcely possible that 
any government in France will ever repeat the unutter- 
able abominations, which laid the train for the justly 
retributive explosion of the first revolution. And 
England is, constitutionally, yet further in advance of 
any continental State. So, too, on this continent, out 
of the necessary discipline of democratic, consolidated 
despotism, will emerge constitutional States, in which 
rational liberty will be secured by the guaranties of 
the people's sense of mutual right and justice. Can we 
suppose that the people of this continent will tamely 
acquiesce in an ultimate despotism ? Ground down and 
despoiled as may be some parts of the country by un- 
scrupulous party despotism, the time will come when 
justice and the rational liberty of constitutional States, 
will emerge from the chaos of a rapacious and selfish 
radicalism and mere democracy, which would sacrifice 
every interest to the irresponsible power of a party 
majority, and would travestie every constitutional 
guarantee, into the mockery of the arbitrary enact- 
ments of the party in power. This is not to be the 
destiny of our country; this is not to be the tyranny 
to which this continent is to submit, with its teeming 
West, and its growing free States upon the Pacific coast. 
And in Europe, we see already significant pulsations 
in England, and upon the continent deep murmurs as of 
the coming earthquake, when through strife and up- 
heaving of error and false conservatism, there will 
emerge — fighting itself forth — larger and more catholic 
truth in Eeligion, Morals and Politics. 

I repeat, then, the question : What may we, from the 
analogy of the past, legitimately anticipate for the 
future? I would answer, that it is no extravagance to 
expect an advance as far beyond our present phase as 
we are beyond what preceded the existing development 
of science, religion, social relations and politics. The 
highest point which man can reach will, it is true, be 



16 

only the evolution of the capacities of a finite, not an 
absolutely perfect, creature; but that evolution is in- 
volved in the Divine Idea of Humanity, and must be 
realized if the Divine Ideas actually expressed in the 
Universe be efficient. If this be so, there are yet grand 
phases through which Humanity must pass, notwith- 
standing the necessary aberrations and conflicts which 
must attend the evolution. No one doubts Ihe progress 
in science; few can deny the amelioration of social re- 
lations and conditions; but how imperfect are these as 
yet ! Is there to be no further enlightenment of the 
ignorant? Are the squalid, the abject, the degraded, 
the embruted, who exist, alas! even in the very midst 
of the most cultured nations, to be no further reached 
and helped and elevated by Christian philanthropy and 
duty? And Christianity itself, is it to be no further 
purified from the encrustations of schools and sects, 
which still obscure its glorious lineaments and its 
divine simplicity ? Has man been enabled by the good 
God to conceive of rational liberty, only to be fooled 
with an illusive dream, or by a mocking demon ? God 
forgive the supposition of such deadly issues? No! 
such is not the Destiny of Humanity which all the past 
prophecies. In each transition epoch there is a process 
going on, like the mysterious transformation of the 
chrysalis, when those who live in the period cannot 
trace and grasp in all their relations the complicated 
operations, which, working deeply and secretly in the 
bosom of civilization, are preparing for a higher evolu- 
tion. And seeing what thoughts God has already 
wrought out, in progressive development, through Hu- 
manity, I look in the future for a period, not only of 
progress for the higher races, but when the leading 
races which represent the highest capacities of Man 
will educate and impart to the inferior races whatever 
they are capable of receiving for the full discharge of 
their functions as members of Humanity, in that sphere 
which Providence has allotted to them. And when 
the law of the relation of races is understood and acted 
upon, in the spirit of Charity and Justice, then only 
can be evolved a rational human fraternity, in which 



17 

each people, freely developing itself within its appro- 
priate sphere, neither encroaching upon others nor be- 
ing encroached upon, will contribute to the unfolding 
of Humanity as a brotherhood, in subordination to the 
laws of duty, and of the relations of place and diverse 
capacities. The maxim about " the greatest good of 
the greatest number," is as pernicious in Morals as it is 
absurd in Philosophy, and contrary to the spirit of 
Justice. What kind of physical constitution would that 
be, in which some organs were to be repressed in the 
discharge of their appropriate functions, upon the 
alleged ground of the benefit of the majority of the 
other organs? The result would be abnormal and dis- 
eased. The very idea of a perfectly healthy constitu- 
tion is that in which no organ is sacrificed for another, 
but each and all have their full and natural play within 
the sphere of their several functions ; all contributing — 
(not to the repression of any, but — ) to the full devel- 
opment of each — each contributing to the harmonious 
welfare of the whole. 

And it is precisely the same in moral and political 
organizations, the great problem of which is, not the 
greatest good of the greatest number, (for if some 
members are mutilated, there can be no greatest good) 
but the greatest good of each, and therefore of all ; in 
other words, that to each individual should be secured 
in his proper sphere, the full development of his indi- 
viduality, regulated, and therefore elevated, by the su- 
preme law of duty and Christian principle. I do not 
presume to say that such an ideal will ever be perfectly 
realized upon the earth ; but if the past be not the 
result of chance, if a Divine Providence has presided 
over the prophetic evolution, then I feel a profound 
conviction that Humanity is destined to a nearer ap- 
proximation to the realization of its capacities; that 
a future age will see in Eeligion a Christianity, not of 
the olden Church Fathers, nor of Luther, nor Calvin, 
nor Cranmer, nor Wesley, but of Christ, the embodi- 
ment of Holy Justice and of Divine Love ; that a future 
age will see in politics, a rational liberty, equally re- 
moved from the licentiousness of mere democracy, and 



18 

the stagnation of despotism, regulated by Law, founded 
upon justice, sanctified by Keligion, exhibiting self- 
government in constitutional forms, which secure the 
rights of the minority and regulate the freedom of the 
majority ; in short, that a future age will see, Justice, 
in its largest sense, influencing every phase of human 
development — Justice I* It is the most glorious attri- 
bute of the Deity himself. It is nothing less than 
Goodness directed by Wisdom. It is Justice which 
preserves the existence of harmony in the universal 
frame which God has established. Her seat is the 
throne of God; her dominion is coextensive with the 
empire of the universe ; the wicked tremble before the 
lightning of her glance; the oppressed take refuge 
beneath the shadow of her august sceptre; and Man, 
in his feeble capacity and degree, strives to reflect her 
image, and to ennoble his decisions with the impress of 
her form. With Mercy and Goodness as her sisters 
and assessors, she distributes to each created being its 
appropriate award; and neither yielding to flattery, 
nor insensible to pity, she guides in their appointed 
spheres all orders of the universe, teaching them to 
quire in eternal harmony around the throne of God. 

What relation do we bear to that future evolution of 
Humanity? If we look for the earliest condition of 
civilization, we find it to have been manifested in the 
East ; it is towards sunrise that we must trace upward 
the stream of nations. But the civilization of the great 
Eastern races, while in certain respects presenting a 
high degree of development, yet was inflexible, defec- 
tive in the social element, and bound to vast despo- 
tisms. The Phoenicians, who were further West than 
the Ninevites, exhibited a much freer and more active 
form of civilization. Still further Westward — after we 
leave the East entirely — the onward-rolling stream of 
civilization bursts forth in yet newer, fresher and more 
glorious founts upon the Grecian soil. Still further 
Westward, and still later, appears the civilization of the 

* Cf. the celebrated passage concerning Law, in Hooker's 
Eccles. Polit. 



19 

Komans, not higher, in many respects, than that of the 
Greeks, but infinitely beyond any which had appeared 
in the East, and which, adopting much of the Grecian 
culture, spread the elements of civilization wider and 
deeper than they had ever yet been carried. Still fur- 
ther West arose the next form of civilization under 
Charlemagne. On the extremest Western border of 
Europe developed itself the civilization of modern Eng- 
land ; and rolling ever towards sunset, the course of 
Humanity finds a boundless vista opening before it in 
America, while nations left behind are passing their 
meridian, or have already sunk into decay. But there 
has been no retrogression of the general tendency of 
the great stream ; that is, civilization has never turned 
to flow Eastward, and the elements of a new, higher, 
Christianized civilization, seem destined to be carried 
ultimately to the East by the still Westward tending 
path across the Pacific Ocean. This, however, lies in 
the future, when experience shall have taught the peo- 
ple of this land how to secure rational and constitution- 
al liberty by surer guarantees — when the spirit of 
Justice and Christianity shall have been more fully de- 
veloped — when several independent, real republics shall, 
in a bond of amity and mutual assistance, have further- 
ed, in another ascending node, the development of Hu- 
manity upon this vast continent. Meantime, what is 
our duty in the present? That we are members of an 
ever progressively unfolding Humanity — an Idea of 
God evolving itself towards completion — ennobles us in 
our relations to the races of Man, and furnishes an in- 
centive to the discharge of our duties in the immediate 
present. The honor and dignity of a country is, to a 
certain extent, in the keeping of every citizen. The 
best and truest citizen is the man who is striving to 
actuate a real and truthful existence, believing that life 
and its aims and duties are grand and solemn realities, 
rooted in immovable principles of Truth and Justice. 
Man's moral life is rooted in that which he loves and 
believes in, and the citizen who realizes that he is a 
member of Humanity will so live as to aid, and further, 
and awaken others to the progress and cause of Truth 



20 

and goodness. He will recognize that there is some- 
thing permanent and eternal beneath all that is transi- 
tory and phenomenal — that truth, justice, rectitude and 
duty are no unstable words, changing their signification 
with each new relation; but that they are immovable 
verities, independent of time and place, and in these he 
knows that his life must be rooted by faith in their re- 
ality and enduring power — by love of their eternal 
nobleness and beauty. This will impart to him an ear- 
nestness, a weight of character, a moral dignity and 
power which the world may, for a time, scorn and ridi- 
cule, but which no opposition can render nugatory, and 
whose influence no lapse of time can quench. The man 
whose name awakens a higher aspiration, a more ear- 
nest thought of life, a more worthy conception of the 
vocation of Man, in the bosom of any fellow-creature, has 
better served his country, has more truly, more immor- 
tally lived, than the man of whom, whatever his tem- 
poral power, however he may have been the demi-god 
of his petty arena, whatever blazonings flattery may 
lend his name, we have yet to ask, what difference 
would it have made to the cause of goodness, truth and 
the progress of Humanity, if he had never existed at all. 
Better leave to posterity a name, which, however 
comparatively obscure, cannot be known without its 
accompanying noble associations, than many of those 
names which can give no reply to the demand which 
Humanity has a right to make — "for what true purpose 
have you lived?" names, which, it is true, are often in 
the world's mouth, but which never reach, or move to 
better aspirations, the great heart of Humanity. If we 
fold our arms now because times are dark and hard, — 
if we give ourselves up to indolence, or selfishness, in- 
stead of earnest effort, times will never become better 
for us, but we will reap the bitter harvest to the end. 
There is indeed an evil, devilish earnestness, by which 
some portentous beings have stamped themselves, as in 
dreadful characters of fire and death, upon the annals 
of the world. But in the progress of the great Drama 
of Ages, as Humanity is unfolded at each successive 
epoch into higher development, such characters will 



21 

only stand upon the path of time like blighted marks; 
while the men who have lived for Truth, Justice, Kec- 
titude and Humanity, are those who will gather around 
their memories the glorious halo of their fellow-crea- 
tures' gratitude and admiration. Let us, then, deriving 
hope from the history of the past, submitting to the 
providence of the present, with manly and Christian 
faith in the future, endeavor so to live and act, that, 
whether our sphere be public or private, distinguished 
or obscure — whether our actions and services be recog- 
nized or neglected, we may yet, in our own bosoms, 
possess the ennobling and sustaining consciousness, 
that, within the sphere of our free-agency and respon- 
sibility, we have honestly and justly endeavored to do 
our duty as members of that Humanity which lives and 
moves and has its being in God. 



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